The transdermal route of parenteral delivery of drugs provides many advantages over other administrative routes and transdermal systems for delivering a wide variety of drugs or other beneficial agents are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,598,122; 3,598,123; 4,379,454; 4,286,592; 4,314,557 and 4,568,343, for example, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
However, despite the development of the art, there has remained a continuing need for improved techniques in drug delivery and improved drug delivery systems.
The present invention delivers drugs at therapeutically effective rates and offers the advantages of greatly increased drug permeability through the skin, along with reduction of the lag time between application of a transdermal therapeutic system and attainment of the desired drug flux.
While it is known in the art to combine permeation enhancers, this invention utilizes a novel combination of ethanol and glycerol monolaurate (GML) and the combined effect is a significant and surprising improvement over use of ethanol or glycerol monolaurate, alone.